


Chrysanthemum

by Val_Creative



Series: Language of Flowers Femslash Feb 2021 [12]
Category: Gake no Ue no Ponyo | Ponyo
Genre: Angst and Romance, Bittersweet, F/F, Femslash, Femslash February, Femslash February 2021, First Kiss, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Future Fic, Goddesses, Ocean, Older Characters, Past Character Death, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-12 16:35:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29387808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Val_Creative/pseuds/Val_Creative
Summary: Nothing seems to comfort Lisa after her husband’s passing and a grown up Sousuke heading to university.
Relationships: Granmamare/Lisa (Ponyo)
Series: Language of Flowers Femslash Feb 2021 [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2138865
Comments: 9
Kudos: 7
Collections: Femslash February, Femslash Friday





	Chrysanthemum

**Author's Note:**

> This one is a little bit of a heartbreaker but hey,,, that's the way it goes. Any thoughts/comments appreciated very much!
> 
> _Note: Chrysanthemums - Lamentation_

*

Kouichi breaks his promises.

He always does.

_I'll be home soon. Kiss Sousuke twice for me._

Now there's only transmission static in her ears when Lisa forgetfully signals on the old two-way radio. The captain of "Koganei Maru" perished along with fifty-seven of his crew after the fishing boat went under. She remembers that vicious, lightning-filled summer storm.

Sousuke prays his father's memorial photo, lighting senko and rearranging the white chrysanthemums.

He always does.

Lisa watches him grow up, attending his undergraduate program for Marine Biology.

Her heart still tightens with fear at the thought of Sousuke being in the water. Drowning like Kouichi did, admiring the ocean until the ocean herself betrayed him. She refuses to allow him to join the fishermen for pay. She refuses to come back to the Elderly Home. She refuses to move out of their little yellow house with the red-tiled roof, even after a deeply worried Sousuke moves out and asks her to join him in Tokyo.

_I'll be home soon, Mom._

The tears well up in Lisa's eyes. She lies down on the floor with her legs flopped up on Sousuke's bed. A warm, fragrant breeze drifts from the open window. In her head, Lisa can hear a soft twinkling. It sounds faraway from outside, but coming closer.

Another woman's gentle and easy laughter.

She sits up, blinking perplexed and wiping off her runny nose. Her pink pillow left on the rug.

Lisa wanders onto her porch-step, squinting her eyes. There's a _light_ in the water. A marvelously tremendous glow sparkling in light blues and deep pinks. Teal-green. Vibrant and gilded orange. She walks down a cliff-side path in the darkness, mindful of wet stones.

Within minutes, a figure appears from the gold-glowing, iridescently colored sea.

_A woman._

_Guardian of the Sea._

_Goddess of Mercy._

_Granmamare._

She's taller than Lisa, wading to her thighs and holding out her hands. Her impossibly long, red hair flows like water-ripples.

Lisa instinctively goes to her.

"Maria," she exhales, wide-eyed in admiration. Lisa's hands visibly tremble in hers. "Maria Kannon. You are Ponyo's mother."

"Hello again," Maria Kannon says smiling, and her voice twinkles in the air.

It feels like Lisa's heart becomes a heavy, wet stone.

_"Why…?"_

Lisa's dark eyes tear up.

"Why him…? You saved Kouichi before… you saved all of them…"

"There is no choosing when it is fated. It simply is," Maria Kannon tells her, and her kindness only angers Lisa further. "You and I spoke once. Your heart was young and bright as the stars. You loved so passionately." Maria Kannon's dry hands squeeze hers. "I can still see it."

_"Go away…"_

But she doesn't move, and a solemnly smiling Maria Kannon cups Lisa's face lined by a frown.

She places her lips to Lisa's brow, and a quiver of remorse hits her. She can feel Maria Kannon's love for her, for Ponyo and for Sousuke, for Kouichi's resting soul, and for Tomonoura living by the water.

A love so powerful and uncomplicated and deep, pulling Lisa in like the currents.

Lisa finds herself touching Maria Kannon's shoulder, grasping on. Her own lips seek Maria Kannon's, pillowing her, craving something warm and tangibly affectionate. She's forty-one, lonely with only herself for company, and left to her grief of losing her family to inevitability.

Maria Kannon doesn't scold her. gazing at Lisa with her big, brown eyes.

"As you wish…"

She vanishes into the watery celestial light, slowly releasing her.

A helpless, howling cry escapes Lisa.

*


End file.
